Billie Jo's 2 Sisters At Home Doctors Treated Girls For A Blood Disorder

August 26, 1985|By Mildred A. Williams of The Sentinel Staff

The two younger sisters of an Ocoee girl who died of a rare amoebic infection were released from a Gainesville hospital early Sunday after doctors found no signs of the disease.

A Shands Teaching Hospital spokeswoman said Patricia and Monica Nobles had a bacterial blood disorder, not primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, the disease that killed their 8-year-old sister, Billie Jo.

Patricia, 7, and Monica, 3, were taken Friday to West Orange Memorial Hospital with high fevers, congestion and stuffiness. They later were flown to Shands as a precaution because they swam in the Ocoee lake where their sister contracted the illness.

The girls returned to Ocoee Sunday afternoon with their parents.

Danny Nobles, 30, the girls' father, said he and his wife, Bonnie, 29, were pleased that doctors took precautions with the children.

''They told me that if the fever gets to 102 and stays there for five minutes or more to bring them back,'' Nobles said.

Doctors at Shands performed blood tests and spinal taps on Patricia and Monica. All but one of nearly 100 people known to have contracted the disease have died.

Nobles said doctors told him to take the girls back to West Orange Memorial today for more tests. Their other daughter, 17-month-old Amy, also will be taken to the hospital for tests today because she has had a slight fever, Nobles said.

Amy also swam with her sisters in Starke Lake, near their home.

Nobles said the three girls were playing Sunday at the home of a friend. They still had fevers, but were being given Tylenol and liquids to combat the temperatures.

Billie Jo died Tuesday after a common amoeba found in lake bottoms worldwide entered her body while she swam Aug. 14. After entering through the nose, the fast-multiplying amoeba finds its way to the brain, where it feeds on tissue and causes severe swelling. Victims usually fall into a coma within a few days and die within a week.

Billie Jo was buried Thursday.

''Billie Jo was a rough experience,'' he said. ''The minister at the funeral said it's something that doesn't happen very often, but you know she's in the arms of God right now and that helped a lot.''

Several funds have been established to help the Nobleses, who have no insurance, with hospital and funeral bills. The Shop & Go Co., which employs Mrs. Nobles, is taking donations.

More than $4,300 has been collected.

Checks also can be sent to the Billie Jo Nobles Fund, in care of the West Orange Bank, P.O. Box 794, Ocoee; or Orlando Jaycees, P.O. Box 2047, Orlando 32802; and all Sun Bank branches.